He felt a numbness creeping over his limbs and he drew his breath like one in pain.

Mary looked pale as a lily as she returned and stood waiting for the applause to die away.

Then out over the tense audience, straight toward him, soared her voice quivering with emotion--she dared to sing the old song for him.
Suddenly all sense of material things passed from the wild heart of the plainsman.

He saw only the singer who stood in the center of a white flame.

A soft humming roar was in his ears like the falling of rain drops on the leaves of maple trees.